Joe Ganim still fighting to clear name

Published 12:11 am, Wednesday, May 26, 2010

With a little more than a month left in his sentence, former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim has just about paid his price to society.

But Ganim has not given up the fight to clear his name.

He recently filed a 40-page request with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, along with nearly 200 pages of exhibits, asking for a certificate of appealability. This would allow him to challenge his conviction on 16 federal corruption charges by claiming the prosecution withheld information regarding two key witnesses against him.

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Both Pinto and Grimaldi pleaded guilty to federal charges and served prison terms. They spent days testifying about how they split kickbacks with the former mayor on city contracts he awarded.

In the alternative, Ganim has asked the court to send the matter back to U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton for a full hearing on his claims. "The secret side deals did not exist, and Pinto was not under psychiatric care before or during petitioner's trial," Arterton wrote last Dec. 28 in a decision finding no merit to Ganim's claims.

John Pavia, an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac Law School, said "these types of motions are always longshots."

When advised of Ganim's latest filing, Grimaldi said the former mayor is doing this to build a platform for a political comeback.

"He has a good family, a good wife and great kids," Grimaldi said. "He should be focusing on them."

Ganim, who is completing his sentence at the Watkinson House in Hartford, could not be reached for comment. Although his sentence is due to expire on July 10, it's likely he will spend the final month living at home with his family for the first time since he entered a federal prison camp on Sept. 16, 2003 to begin serving a nine-year federal prison term. His sentence was cut by a year after he successfully completed a prison program for substance abuse. The sentence was further reduced 54 days for each of the last six years because of good behavior in prison.

The former mayor has been working as a paralegal at the Waterbury law firm of Kolesnik and Norris. A member of the firm, Robert Kolesnik Jr., is Ganim's brother-in-law. George Ganim Sr., the mayor's father, said his son drafted and filed the petition. The elder Ganim declined to comment on the filing and said his son could not comment on it.

Thomas Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, also declined comment.

The latest filings come as part of habeus corpus petitions.

Previously Ganim appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where it declined to hear his request.

In his latest request, he points out that eight of the 16 counts he was convicted on involve violations of the honest services clause of the mail fraud statute. That clause currently is being challenged in three cases pending before the Supreme Court. The high court is expected to issue a ruling as to the constitutionality of that 28-word section before the end of its term in June.

Should the Supreme Court find that statute unconstitutional, Ganim asked the Court of Appeals to "consider a remand" to Arterton "on all counts."

As part of his sentence -- which included two years in prison -- Pinto was ordered to pay $265,000 in restitution and $100,000 in fines. The money was to be taken out of an escrow account of seized funds held by the government. Any amount remaining was to be forfeited to the government.

The terms of Pinto's plea-bargain agreement required him to forfeit $400,000.

Ganim claims Pinto only forfeited about $48,689, which represents the interest the escrow account generated.

Grimaldi's plea agreement called for him to forfeit $175,000. However, Ganim claims Grimaldi never forfeited anything and was allowed by the prosecution to keep 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale of his home.

"Baloney, baloney, baloney," said Grimaldi. "People took the stand, people told the truth and when Joe's turn came, he didn't tell the truth. It's as simple as that."

Grimaldi served 10 months of his 14-month sentence in a federal prison camp and was fined $75,000. He was forced to sell his home in Redding and turn over $25,000 from a money market account.

But Ganim claims the government forgave $514,975 in taxes Grimaldi owed.

"The written side deal with Grimaldi is expressly contained in three documents filed under seal many months before the petitioner's trial began," Ganim wrote.

He claimed the prosecution "continued to be less than candid by concealing the existence of supplements to the plea agreements" throughout the entire trial.

"The District Court erred in reaching its conclusion that evidence of the Government's secret side deals with its main cooperators for the forgiveness of hundreds of thousands of dollars, along with perjured testimony would only be cumulative. This clearly would not be cumulative because it goes to the heart of the case."